Congregation Shema Yisrael

Am I a Christian or a Messianic…or does it matter? Someone at my congregation was recently remarking on the things she’s learned while worshiping with us. One of the things she said was, “I’m having a hard time calling myself a Christian anymore”. What could she have meant by that? After all, we Messianics at our core, believe many of the same things as our Evangelical Christian brothers and sisters. We believe that Yeshua (Jesus) is the Son of God, born of a virgin, sacrificed for many, who rose on the third day after burial, and sits on the right hand of God the Father. That certainly sounds Christian to me. Then why do we even call ourselves “Messianics” at all? What’s the difference?

The issue can be rather hotly debated in both Messianic and traditionally Christian circles. Despite what I just said, many Messianics refuse to call themselves Christians and become deeply insulted if you don’t draw the distinction. Others see the term Messianic as either completely interchangeable with the term Christian or merely describing a subset of Christianity that holds to certain additional beliefs (such as keeping the Kosher laws and a Saturday Sabbath).

To understand the situation, it’s necessary to conduct a brief history and language lesson. As most people in the church realize, what is called the “New Testament” was originally written in Koine Greek. This is also known as “common Greek” or the form of the Greek language employed in the 1st Century of the Common Era (CE), and that was used by the “common man”. It was the lingua franca of the world of Paul and the rest of the Apostles, much in the same way we think of English today. Even if Greek wasn’t your native language (and it wasn’t for the Israeli disciples of Yeshua), the use of Koine Greek would allow you to communicate with the widest possible audience in the then civilized world. This is why the Apostolic scriptures were written in that language (and not because it had some spiritual meaning of its own…the choice was purely a pragmatic one).

When we use words like “Jesus” or “Christian”; we are actually using translations from the original Greek words into modern English (there are arguments that the first commonly used Bibles were translated from Latin and not Greek, but that’s an article topic all by itself). Some of the New Testament (NT) books have a Hebrew/Aramaic base and contain a Semitic language influence, which is to be expected if the original authors were all Hebrew and Aramaic speakers and used Greek speaking scribes to translate their writings or dictations. This is illustrated at the end of some of Paul’s letters when he makes a point of saying he’s adding a note in his own hand (in Greek) rather than using his scribe. It wasn’t that Paul couldn’t have written his letters in Greek, but it was a second language to him, and he wanted everything to be written as correctly as possible.

The first usage of what we consider the word “Christian” was recorded in Acts 11:26 (NIV).

“and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught great numbers of people. The disciples were called Christians first at Antioch”.

Of course “Christian” as we pronounce it in English, didn’t exist as a word when Acts was written, nor would it for hundreds of years. The original Greek word for “Christ” is Χριστός (Greek spelling) and for “Jesus” is Éçóïýò (Greek spelling) or Iesous (English spelling), and pronounced ee-ay-sooce or ee-sooce. It’s interesting to note though, that the Greek word we translate as “Christian” is only found in two other places in the NT: Acts 26:28 and 1 Peter 4:16. All other NT references to believers are translated as “Saints” (which from a Semintic language viewpoint, would be better translated as “The Righteous” or “Righteous Ones” from the Hebrew word “Tzadek”). There is some indication that early believers called themselves “The Way” or “Nazarenes” (after the city of Nazareth) prior to the Gospel being received by the believers in Antioch, but I can’t find a ready made reference for this piece of information. In any case, the term “Christian” would have been taken from the word “Christ” or Χριστός which should map to the term “Messiah” or “Mashiach” in Hebrew (the Anointed One). If you take this perspective, then believers in the Messiah (Christ) calling themselves (ourselves) “Messianic” does tend to work rather well. The term “Christian” would be the translation from the Hebrew, through the Greek, to the English.

So why does that make any sort of difference now? Everyone reading this article is reading it in English, so why go the extra mile and worry about Hebrew? Doesn’t being a Christian in the 1st Century mean the same thing as being a Christian in the 21st Century? From many people’s point of view, including my own, the answer is “no”. I know that may horrify some of you reading this, but hear me out. The Way or the Messianic Movement (Christianity) in the 1st Century Middle Eastern, Greek, and Roman world was originally a form of Judaism, the way that being a Pharisee or an Essene would be examples of Jewish sects. Jews belonging to The Way were considered just as Jewish as Jews who were Pharisees. Think of it the way we consider Orthodox, Conservative, and Reform Jews today. They are all Jews with common Biblical beliefs but with differences in Theology. The Way in the 1st Century would have been a different Jewish Theology, but still definitely a Jewish Theology. Is Christianity a Jewish Theology today? Absolutely not. Even suggesting that to a modern Jew would be foolish at best and insulting at worst. Modern Christians would also scoff at the idea that they are worshiping within the framework of a “Judaism”. That’s where we encounter our “problem”.

Sometime in the early centuries of the Common Era (CE), the Messianic Movement diverged from being a wholly Jewish sect to being something else. As Gentile worshipers began to outnumber the Jewish “root”, a series of events would occur that would tear this movement away from Judaism altogether and ultimately require that anyone Jewish renounce their Judaism and convert to the “Christian” faith. This Gentile majority would have first appeared by about 100 CE and the Church would have been totally separated from Judaism between the 3rd and 5th Centuries. The history is lengthy and I won’t include it in this blog post, but I may do the research and recommend books and other resources for any interested parties at a later date.

What we can reasonably conclude is that the “Christianity” of Paul’s day was likely to have been very different from the Christianity of 2009. So, while we can use the word “Christianity” to describe believers both in the 1st Century CE and today, the belief systems and practices of these two groups is quite different. 1st Century “Christianity” required that the Gentile believers renounce their former pagan religions and adhere to the one true God of Israel and His Son, the Jewish Messiah. 21st Century Christianity requires that non-believers, including Jews, renounce their former ways (which for Jews means renouncing all Jewish beliefs and practices, including Kosher eating and a Saturday Shabbat) and adhere to Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. But how modern theology depicts Jesus and his followers in the Bible paints at least a somewhat different picture of Yeshua HaMachiach and his talmidim (disciples) than how they were originally seen.

We “Messianics” generally believe that the directives related to issues of a Saturday Shabbat, Kosher eating, and many of the other practices of the Torah and the Prophets (the “Old Testament”) apply to Gentile and Jewish believers today, just as they applied to the Gentile and Jewish believers of Paul’s day. Our Evangelical brothers and sisters believe that those directives were discontinued with the resurrection of Jesus, the letter of the Jerusalem Council in Acts 15, and the widespread entry of Gentiles into The Way as the 1st Century progressed. Based on these theological differences and the modern interpretation of the word “Christianity”, believers in Yeshua from a Hebraic and “One Law” perspective, need to call ourselves something different, in order to indicate that we do not adhere to modern Christian interpretations of the Bible. The most commonly used term is “Messianic” or “Messianic Judaism”. While our core theology is still quite Christian (Son of God, born of a virgin, rose on the Third Day, ascended into Heaven), it may not be possible to completely call ourselves a “Judaism”, so we are either a subcategory of Christian, or an attempt to recapture the original worship of the 1st Century believers. My completely unofficial guess is that, worldwide, there are more Gentiles participating in the Messianic Movement than Jews, which seems to add to my assumption that we might not yet be a “Judaism”, regardless of our outward practice. Whatever and Whoever we are, we aren’t typically Sunday keeping and Easter celebrating worshipers in the traditional Christian sense.

So who are we and what do we call ourselves? If we consider the word “Christian” in the same sense as those worshipers in the ancient city of Antioch, then the term fits. We are just working with a translated word from the Hebrew to the Greek to the English. The original meaning and intent is intact. However, when you say the word “Christian” out loud, you have no control over how the hearer interprets that word. A lot of assumptions are made by most people when you tell them “I’m a Christian” and these assumptions, at least as far as some of us are concerned, are incorrect. When I say “I’m Messianic”, I’m likely to get blank stares most of the time, and have to launch into a 10-minute speech about what that means (or maybe just point them to this article, now). In the end, saying I’m “Christian” doesn’t quite communicate who I am, what I do, or what I believe in the same way as saying “I’m Messianic”.

That said, anyone out there who is “Messianic” and who wants to say you’re “Christian” is perfectly free to do so. You know what you mean and who you are. At the center of it all, it’s the same Messiah and the same God. When he returns to us, he’ll be who he is, regardless of how our theology interprets him. I always hope and pray that we are all, Christian and Messianic alike, seeking truth and that God will illuminate our path to correct worship and complete faith.